The September Apple Event finally came around, and here are the biggest announcements!
Starting with the iPhone lineup, this year Apple has decided to follow the thin phone trend by unveiling the iPhone Air (named after the MacBook Air). The iPhone Air was released in place of the iPhone 16 Plus last year (also note that the iPhone Air doesn’t have 17 in the name, so Apple may be start a new line of iPhones altogether). As for specifications, this phone is 5.6mm thick, making it 0.2mm thinner than the Samsung Galaxy S25 edge. Overall, it has the feel of a thinner iPhone 16, since it has the same titanium frame, ceramic shield, and action button. However, this year, Apple has introduced something they refer to as the Camera Plateau, in the which the camera bump has basically been stretched to the other side of the phone. This is consistent throughout the iPhone 17 lineup. The logic behind the Plateau is that it’s used to store some of the hardware to accommodate for more battery, and it is also how Apple was able to make the iPhone Air so thin. But the caveat for create such a thin phone is loss of functionality, more specifically camera functionality. The best way to describe the camera is a slightly better iPhone SE camera, meaning no UltraWide lens, no 3x zoom, no Spatial Photography, etc (a lot of no’s for this camera). What the camera can do is up to 2x zoom and Apple’s new Center Stage Camera feature. This feature lets you take landscape photos without having to turn your phone over. This is also a feature introduced throughout the iPhone 17 lineup. The other specs on this phone include about 27 hours of video playback (cited by Apple, not yet tested), WiFi 7, Bluetooth 6, and 5G connectivity.
The iPhone lineup also includes the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max. This year, the baseline iPhone (iPhone 17) now has ProMotion, Apple’s adaptive refresh rate that can conserve battery life and scroll smoothly. It also has the Center Stage Camera Apple launched this year and the new A19 chip, which (in theory) should mean a boost in performance and battery life, but that still needs to be tested. Other than that, nothing else has changed from 16 to 17. The Pro models however do have a little more changes, as seen in the change in exterior design. The Pros, like the Air, does have the same Camera Plateau, only that it’s much bigger than the Air’s because of the 3 lenses. Apple switched back to the aluminum frame from titanium, even though titanium was iPhone 15’s whole theme. As for the tech inside the phone, the camera now has an 8x optical zoom and the same center stage camera, and the video camera can now support Pro Level film shooting. But the biggest upgrade to the iPhone 17 is the new Vapor chamber, which helps cool the phone down. This alone boosts the iPhone 17’s performance by a lot and also makes the performance last. Lastly, the iPhone 17 has the new A19 Pro, so Apple promises better battery life and performance with this phone as well.
The iPhones weren’t the only thing announced at this event though. Apple revealed the new Apple Watch lineup too, which includes the Apple Watch 11, Apple Watch SE 3, and Apple Watch Ultra, although there isn’t much new. Apple Watch 11 major advancement is its ability to detect hypertension without taking a blood pressure reading. It does this tracking heart rate signals for 30 days. The only other upgrade is 5G connectivity, but still not much different from the last generation. Next up is the Apple Watch Ultra. The Ultra now has satellite connectivity, which lets you stay connected off-grid, and it contains the hypertension detection and 5G as well. This watch also has better battery life, cited to be 42 hours in a single charge under normal use. Finally, there’s the Apple Watch SE. There genuinely isn’t much difference between the 2nd and 3rd generation. The only real difference being 5G connectivity.
Lastly, all three watches have the S10 chip, so, as I said before, Apple promises better performance. Though there aren’t any significant differences, Apple Watch OS does bring a lot more useful features to these phones, the sleep score for example.
The last announcement from this event is the AirPods Pro 3. These brand new Airpods have heart rate and calorie tracking during a workout. They also have live translation, which currently supports English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Apple does hope to include Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin later in the year.
This wraps up all the announcements at this year’s September Apple Event. Overall, my view is that Apple is only just trying to add new features to stay relevant, but the features are nothing very significant.